lauraleellbp

Congrats! And those are some awesome photos!

SKSuser

Sneaky Sneaky Sneaky!
I haven't seen the male at all over the weekend. The female still seems a little bloated, and has been on the driftwood with the anubias for most of the weekend. I haven't seen any eggs on the anubias, and haven't even tried to search all the sword leaves. There are too many places in the tank I can't visually inspect from the outside, and I refuse to disturb the tank any more than I already have. I suspect they did some or all of their business while I wasn't watching, and/or will continue to do so. When they mated in the fall, I continued to see evidences of mating after the male disappeared, so I'm really not that discouraged.

I'm hoping I didn't scare the male trying to remove the loach and several other needed tasks to make the tank a little safer. This could have caused the female to give up and pass the eggs unfertilized.

I'll keep watching for fry, eggs, and male. Perhaps some, or all, will show up.

customdrumfinishes

great pics! will you sell any of the juvis if you have enough? thanks

SKSuser

I'm unsure what I would do in the event of a sizable amount of fry. From my first experiences, if I remember correctly, I was able to count seven fry at once. In an article I read, it says that a clutch can be as many as 60 eggs. Obviously, my couple hasn't quite gotten up the nerve to make a full showing.
If I were able to grow more then a suitable amount for my 55g tank to a shippable size, I would probably sell some of them to someone who has more experience than I do, and also the setup to hatch fish, feed them properly, and grow them to adulthood.
If I only end up with an odd one or two, I'll probably keep them in the hopes of turning it into a long term project of breeding them with each other, the parents, or an obliging wild caught Oto.
I'm hoping, like most captive bred fish, any resulting fry would be more adapted to tank life and therefore more ready to mate in a captive setting.

My end goal, and also my goal of sharing as much detail on my experiences as possible, would be that either I or someone who reads my information would start distribution of tank bred Otos. I believe fish bred in small batches at home have a better chance of surviving to adulthood and carrying out meaningful lives.... at least as meaningful as a being with a 3 second attention span can carry out.


Again, thanks to all for your kind comments.

cah925

Very cool, can't wait to hear more about this. I have 2 grow out tanks with a small army of otos only to keep the algae under control. What are your water params?

SKSuser

I hesitate to list my parameters right now, as they aren't actually doing anything at the moment. Any readings I get could just confuse matters.
I'm not absolutely sure if it was me disturbing the tank, or some other factor that made them stop breeding.
The parameters could have changed, or a parameter I have no way of testing could be the one that induced them to breed.. I should have tested when they were in full courtship.

I read somewhere that another person (I believe they were on a french forum) who got their Otos to breed was feeding blood worms to the other tank inhabitants. Some speculation was made that the smell of bloodworms in the tank or supplemental diet of protein could induce spawning.
Later it was mentioned that wild caught Otos contain exclusively plant matter in their stomachs. Therefore, I believe the bloodworm claim is erroneous, but I'm mentioning it anyway, as I did feed bloodworms to the loaches when they were in the tank.
I may continue to drop bloodworms in there on occasion. Perhaps the bloodworms provide feed for an algae or microorganism that is of interest to the Oto or its fry.
Any thoughts on this?

Back to your question Cah925, I did test the water when they were breeding the first time. The link to the thread about the first spawn can be found in the blue letters in my previous posts in this thread.

ranchwest

If possible, could you also check the barometric pressure?

I once had a tornado pass over my house and a little while later I had several species breeding, including corydoras and keyhole cichlids. It was the first time the keyholes had bred. I don't know if it had to do with the barometric pressure, but I've always thought that it was possible.

SKSuser

I dunno man. Its interesting that it was gloomy, dropping pressure, and cloudy out both days they started. I remember the 23rd, we had some stuff blown around at our house, and I woke up at 6:30am to a cloud just south of me that looked like it was trying to hook. Its still a little early for tornado season, but it had that feeling.

I wouldn't have thought to look back in the almanac to last year's weather. Now that I think about it, I remember last fall it was too cloudy to get some infusoria going fast.

Maybe I'll do my next water change during severe weather and see what happens. :P

ranchwest

Thanks, looks like this might be worth monitoring.

cah925

Thanks, I found the link. Your params are somewhat similar to mine. That pressure thing is quite interesting. This area of Fl doesn't usually get severe drops in pressure unless it's hurricane season. I'll start watching them later this year when the hurricanes start up again. :knock knock: hopefully we don't get hit head on by one.